Russia wants to coordinate global grain

Russia is proposing setting up an international organization to coordinate
grain markets, the agriculture minister said Wednesday.

"Russia has proposed approaching major grain producers and exporters with the
idea of establishing an organization to coordinate grain production and trade
globally, a kind of 'grain OPEC,'" Alexei Gordeyev said following a meeting of
the Russian-Ukrainian agriculture commission. Ukraine's agriculture minister,
Yuriy Melnik, supports the proposal, saying Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan
should coordinate their agricultural operations in the sector initially.

Extreme draughtSome regions in Russia and Ukraine
have been seriously affected by draught this year, which has endangered cereal
crops. But Gordeyev said grain reserves in both countries were sufficient to
meet domestic demand and export obligations. Russia and Ukraine export an
average of 12 million and 10 million metric tons of grain a year respectively.
The minister said they were worried by some global market trends, above all,
growing grain prices, adding that at the moment grain cost over $200 per metric
ton.